Jingle All The Way - It's the 2023 Christmas Chatter Thread!

princesskitty29

Unfortunately TKMaxx only had one broom in stock that wasn't what I was looking for so no treasure keys for me this time! I'd liked to have looked around as they had some stuff on sale but it was too much hassle with the boys in tow. They did have loads of Halloween stuff out though so they are obviously starting to change their seasonal stock.

@mandco yes the boys made a lot of noise during my appointment despite plenty of reprimands from me! They weren't being naughty but just trying to entertain themselves! Well done on the displate deal, it's always so satisfying to get good deals like that.

@Spendless fingers crossed you find the M&S gift card. I couldn't find a gift card I received for my birthday, it wasn't where I usually kept such things and I hunted high and low - I eventually found it inside a book I had also received for my birthday, i'd obviously forgotten i'd tucked it in there!

Coxy11

Hi all,

Talk of giftcards reminds me of why I give hard cash now instead of specific shops. Have had times in the past when we gave giftcards and the shops went bust! 

September birthdays are looming - MIL on 3rd, BIL on 5th, nephew on 20th. Nephew will get cash. No clue about DH's mum and brother so I've told him to get his thinking cap on. I've said on here before how frustrating it is a) still to be buying adults in the family gifts and b) how I always end up sorting cards and presents for birthdays and Christmas every year for everyone.

Had a discussion with DH last night about making this Christmas the last time we buy and instead just buy for the children which is 2 x nephews aged 16, niece 15, niece 14 and nephews 7 and 5. DH wouldn't hear of it, despite getting port and stilton (wrapped and not refrigerated) every Christmas from his parents (gross) and pointless desk gadgets from his DSis. I usually get a bottle of rum but even then I have my limits (cupboard currently has 1 open and 4 unopened and my birthday is a month away.....). One year BIL bought me a concrete pig - not even joking.

I have been looking at my loyalty points balances - Tesco currently £13, Sains £6 and Boots £8. Not huge amounts as I don't shop there often (we have phone contracts with Tesco hence the bigger points balance there). I also have a £20 Amazon voucher from the Shoppix app and another £10 nearly earned. I vowed to save all points/vouchers for Christmas gifts so if I still have to source all the gifts, at least they won't cost too much actual money.

How are you guys doing with loyalty points - are you saving yours up too?

Treasurequeen

@Coxy11 I have been saving my loyalty points too. So far I have £20 of cashback cashed as a Tesco voucher which will go towards Christmas food. I have £10 sainsburys voucher from surveys which will go towards a bottle of fizz. I have also got- Tesco £6, Sainsbury’s £5 and boots £8 and I am £5 away from another survey voucher. I’m no longer buying gift cards except Amazon for people as 1- shops are disappearing, 2 the older generation in my family don’t like them and prefer gifts or cash. My brother and sister in law like Amazon so they get Amazon vouchers. The other gift card I would buy is National book tokens. In my local JL I see that they know sell gift cards for other shops. 

Coxy11

Sounds good @Treasurequeen

DH and I went to TKMaxx today as we needed a couple of new hand towels for the shower room as DH has commandeered the original ones for the gym.

We also got MIL and BIL their birthday gifts. MIL has a Laura Ashley garden kneeler, bamboo gardening gloves and a decent pair of secateurs plus a lovely glass pot of pot pourri with a rose gold top. Total spending including large gift bag with tissue paper was £35 - £5 under budget.

BIL loves cooking Italian food, so we got him a ceramic handpainted bottle of olive oil, some tricolour pasta shapes, some seasonings and a le creuset oven dish. Was a bit miffed as thought the dish was £14.99 but it was £24.99! It's a family sized dish and there's only two of them (and SIL has an eating disorder.....) but DH insisted that was the one he was getting because everything fitted inside to wrap it! Total spend £49.26 - £9.26 over budget. Even more miffed as this was the BIL who bought me the concrete pig......! I know you shouldn't give to receive but a concrete pig...really??

There were some lovely pumpkin scented candles in there but I resisted. We already have two scented candles to use up first 

princesskitty29

It was DS1's birthday yesterday so we had a busy day taking him and some friends to soft play then we had to come home and put together a giant football goal he wanted! I don't have any other birthdays until November now so I can start to focus a bit more on Christmas.

Coxy I can't believe you weren't happy to receive a concrete pig, I mean who doesn't want a concrete pig??  Actually, my SiL loves pigs so she might...  Only in a mans mind would he buy the larger dish because all of the bits fit in it! Hopefully your BiL will still make use of it. It sounds like you're doing well with some of your vouchers. We always use our Tesco points for a Butlins holiday but I do have around £20 on my Boots card. I don't really have many loyalty points cards and I haven't kept up with the survey sites as I find them a bit frustrating at times. I was thinking the other day I should start collecting the Tesco stamps as we get a lot of our shopping from there.

Spendless

@Coxy11 - Feel your pain with the still buying of adult relatives. It took me long enough to reduce our gift list down to one I was comfortable with and I admit to taking full advantage of a sisterly sulk to completely resolve it - lol. Do the relatives concerned buy for your own adult children still? I think you're going to have to go for more than one way to skin a rabbit and let someone else talk about the COLC or mortgage rates and offer to help them out by you both agreeing to reduce costs of  present buying. Facepalm at the oversized dish.

I haven't bought gift cards for years either, the missing M&S one was a freebie from DH workplace, so if completely lost it's annoying but hasn't actually cost us anything. The gift cards I did buy DD a few years back when she was at that stage of disliking anything I thought was ok, were whole mall ones so able to be used in the huge majority of a shopping centre's stores. Loyalty points I think I have around £10-11 on Boots, Tesco is about £5 was double but a skint July due to DD being home with no money and last minute wedding expenses  whilst wondering about my job meant we used half of them one day. Sainsbury's came thru the other day but haven't looked at it. 

Wedding over, enjoyed the day but such a shame for them about the rain. Yesterday and today the weather has been fine! Hope it didn't mess up the photos too much for them that's all. My Dad forgot to pack his suit and was upset about it, too far away to return home, fortunately he had shirt, trousers and tie and no one noticed he wasn't wearing a jacket. It does however give me ideas for him for Christmas - he's difficult to buy for - I can get him a garment  or suit carrier, packing cubes and items along those lines and add the travel pill container I got recently. Might not be used all that often but will be handy as and when any occasion does arise.  That would leave me having to do the afternoon tea voucher for their birthdays instead, which is fine because they are Jan/Feb and since I'm going to make the suggestion it's so Mum can wear her dress again, they wouldn't book till warmer weather anyway. I have Radley sunglasses, a tote bag and then pen that still needs the re-fill in to give at Christmas instead. Luggage items will need buying soon before they disappear from shelves in favour of winter/xmas stock.  

mandco

Coxy breaking the habit of buying for extended adult family is often not easy but makes life so much easier once you get everyone on board.  at the concrete pig but hey at least you got a gift my bil always makes a huge fuss about making sure you know it his birthday/when are you bringing my xmas present over but rarely ever returned the favour no surprise that he was the one who had the biggest issue with not buying for adutls anymore  - I never buy to receive but I can count on 1 hand the amount of times he's even bothered to send the kids a birthday card let alone a present.

Its incredibly annoying when things go through more expensive than you'd expected and very frustrating it took you over budget when a smaller one would have probably been fine anyway if you'd known the actual cost. I do find it happening more and more often especially in the supermarkets 

I'm doing well with my nectar points I have nearly £60 on there as its my closest supermarket & I've had quite a few decent bonus points offers lately -  I'll probably use this to buy bits from argos with 
boots I'm down to £6 but I brought a no7 gift set to put away for xmas that was reduce to £23 on the instore clearance shelf 
asda rewards I have about £30 as been mostly saving since it started but they have recently started expiring the cash balance after 6 months but added a xmas savings pot option so moved some over to that. Might just spend the rest and put the equivalent amount of money away for xmas as the rewards saver is very limited you can't use it till nov 24 and it has to be spent but the end of december or you lose it and I do already have a fair amount on my asda xmas saving card that I top up weekly by dd for my asda xmas food shop.
Tesco only a couple of pounds but don't get there very often maybe once or twice a month as its not local and I can't drive.

still need 1 key for my first tkmax reward as they didn't give me the one for the receipt I claimed for but not been to town for a while - hopefully once ds goes back to college I should be able to qualify for a few before xmas 

spendless congratulations to the happy couple I hope the wedding went well despite the rain - the weather satuarday was something else. . 

Princesskitty belated birthday wishes to ds 

I was looking for something to make up the minimum order and smyths toys had kindi kid dolls down to £7.99 so ordered a couple to put in the donations box. Really not much it it yet this year as struggling to find much in the way of reductions that are actually in stock locally and the budget isn't stretching as far as it normally would.
asda have a reward offer for £1 back on the xmas sweets tubs making them £3.50 but not sure its worth it as they are only £4 elsewhere so its only really 50p cheaper - might just wait and see if there are any offers later 

I think I'm pretty much sorted for dd's birthday next week just need a card and to order her cake from costco
ds displate came so at least he has 1 present to open on his actual birthday just need to try and find a couple small bits to go with it - hIs main gift is a ps5 game but that's simply a case of paying to pre order online as it doesn't come out till next month. I hate buying digital as It always seems like a crazy amount of money for basically nothing but unfortunately it seem to to the way things are nowadays.

costco have the xmas ribbon and disney decorations in already and more xmas stock is slowly making an appearance online 


  

Spendless

M&S gift card found along with some Guess ear-rings I posted about on here but had forgotten about! They had both dropped onto a shelf below the present cupboard. Now both safely enclosed in a large see thru plastic wallet so they can't go walkabouts again.

I went and picked up some DKNY packing cubes and a  foldable  travel laundry bag  for Dad as well as a travel blanket that comes in it's own pouch for DH. All from TK Maxx. A staff member was clearing a nearby shelf as I looked amongst the travel stuff and putting new stock out so I don't think it will be long before all holiday related items have been cleared in favour of Halloween and Christmas stock. I need to buy Dad either a suit or garment carrier and then he is done. If I buy the re-fill for the Radley pen I think I can possibly call Mum done too.  In the same shop I saw designer name pillow cases in their own bag that DD would love but only if she had the rest of the matching bedding, so I've looked online and can only find it on ebay! Along with the same pillow cases at a huge mark up price. I'm sorely tempted and then would need to just look and see if I could at least find something that co-ordinated. Hmmmmm decisions.

 

Coxy11

You guys are doing so well with your vouchers! I obviously need to shop more in mainstream supermarkets/shops. Our main shop is usually Aldi.

Good spot in TKMaxx @spendless on the travel stuff.

It's BILs 50th today. I sent his wine tasting gift voucher and vintage t-shirt by Post Office 48 hour collect and track - they came and collected it on Monday. I texted him this morning to say HB and he said thanks but didn't mention the gift - I know it's been delivered as have photo evidence. Is it me?

List of those we currently buy for : MIL, FIL, BIL and his wife, his two teenage daughters, SIL and her husband, her son and daughter (23 and 19) and their 3 sons (16, 7 and 4), my mum, my niece 33, 2 nephews 24 and 15 plus the stepdaughter of a friend (15). We also have our three adult children and DIL2B. The only people we don't buy for is my sister and BIL - just take a token box of chocs or wine when we visit over the season.

It's a lot, but DH is adamant we keep buying. BIL (DHs brother) no longer buys for my 3 adult children. Photo of concrete pig to follow - because I know you're dying to see it

Coxy11

It’s in the flower bed under the bird feeding station. I use it as a step to reach the bird  feeders!